Alexi McCammond resigned as Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue before she even started. McCammond left the job in response to criticism from Teen Vogue staff members regarding racist and homophobic tweets from 10 years ago that resurfaced recently.
Teen Vogue’s publisher, Condé Nast, sent an internal email on Thursday announcing that McCammond would not be starting the position. This was caused by pressure from staff members, readers and at least two advertisers.
“After speaking with Alexi this morning, we agreed that it was best to part ways, so as to not overshadow the important work happening at Teen Vogue,” Stan Duncan, the chief people officer at Condé Nast, said in the email.
McCammond included a statement in the email and also posted one on her Twitter account.
“My past tweets have overshadowed the work I’ve done to highlight the people and issues that I care about,” she wrote. “Issues that Teen Vogue has worked tirelessly to share with the world – and so Condé Nast and I have decided to part ways.”
She wished the team at Teen Vogue luck and said the work they are doing “has never been more important.”
McCammond solidified herself as a prominent reporter last year while covering President Joe Biden‘s campaign for Axios and contributing at MSNBC and NBC. In 2019, she was named the emerging journalist of the year by the National Association of Black Journalists. She would have been the third black woman to serve as Teen Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief.
The tweets in question were posted in 2011 when McCammond was a teenager. They included comments about the appearance of Asian features, derogatory stereotypes about Asians and slurs for gay people. McCammond apologized for the tweets in 2019 and deleted them.
Screenshots of the tweets recirculated on social media after she was hired at Teen Vogue on March 5. Within days, more than 20 Teen Vogue staff members had condemned the tweets. McCammond apologized again both privately to the staff and in public on Twitter.
“I’ve apologized for my past racist and homophobic tweets and will reiterate that there’s no excuse for perpetuating those awful stereotypes in any way,” she wrote. “I am so sorry to have used such hurtful and inexcusable language.”
After the criticism started, two major advertisers for Teen Vogue, Burt’s Bees and Ulta Beauty, suspended their campaigns with the magazine.
In the email sent Thursday to staff members, Duncan said top executives including Condé Nast’s chief executive, Roger Lynch, and Anna Wintour, the chief content officer and the global editorial director of Vogue, were aware of the racist tweets and asked McCammond about them in her interviews. They said they were not aware of the homophobic tweets or any photos.
Wintour discussed the tweet with leaders of color at Condé Nast and executives said they felt her 2019 apology showed that she had learned from her mistakes.
This controversy comes shortly after Adam Rapoport resigned from his position of Editor-in-Chief of Condé Nast title Bon Appétit after photos of him in brown face surfaced. After this incident, multiple staff members came forward about unfair treatment at the publication and multiple Bon Appétit staff members quit.
